1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print control apparatus, a method for controlling the print control apparatus, and a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, generally, users have switched off power source switches of printing apparatuses to shut down the printing apparatuses.
In recent years, some printing systems have been constructed by connecting a printing apparatus to a print control apparatus, and further connecting the print control apparatus to an information processing apparatus via a network. Among such printing systems, there is a printing system employing a technique called remote shutdown, according to which a user can remotely shut down the printing apparatus and the print control apparatus by issuing a shutdown instruction from the information processing apparatus, as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-36318. The employment of the remote shutdown technique allows the user to save a trip all the way to locations where the respective apparatuses are set up to shut down the printing apparatus and the print control apparatus.
However, the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-36318 has the following problem.
According to the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-36318, the print control apparatus transmits a shutdown instruction to the printing apparatus upon reception of a shutdown instruction from the information processing apparatus. Then, if the print control apparatus receives no response even after a predetermined time has elapsed after making an inquiry to the printing apparatus about whether the printing apparatus is in operation, the print control apparatus shuts down the print control apparatus itself. Therefore, if the printing apparatus is performing some processing and is in a state that cannot receive the shutdown instruction, only the print control apparatus may be shut down while the printing apparatus may fail to be shut down without the user's noticing it.